Aerosol detergent compositions



ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An aerosol detergent composition containing a propellent and a mixture of surface active agent and a textile optical brightening agent. The aerosol detergent composition is useful in pretreating highly soiled areas of textile materials prior to laundering in an aqueous detergent.

The present invention relates to an improved detergent composition, and in particular to an aerosol formulated detergent composition which is particularly adapted for the pretreatment of the heavily soiled areas of textile products prior to conventional washing procedures, as well as for use as a high sudsing detergent product which is outstandingly useful for washing fine fabrics, particularly by hand.

Most soiled garments which are normally washed in a conventional laundering operation are not uniformly soiled, and in fact, most of such articles exhibit heavy soiling in limited and localized areas. As an example of this, mention might be made of mens shirts wherein severe soiling normally occurs in the collar and cuff areas of the shirt. In the usual laundering operations wherein heavily soiled and irregularly soiled articles are to be laundered, it has been an age-old custom to pretreat such areas prior to laundering as by rubbing soap onto the heavily soiled portions thereof. With the advent of synthetic detergent compositions, and the almost complete disappearance of powdered soap for use in laundering machines, this practice of pretreating the heavily soiled areas of the article with soap has practically disappeared.

While the synthetic detergent formulations currently in use, in general, perform admirably in the cleansing of garments in a standard Washing cycle, heavily soiled areas, more often than not, do not come through such a laundering cycle cleansed to the degree often desired. Although some use is still made of the soap rubbing techniques to pretreat the heavily soiled portions of the garment, it is generally recognized that soap is a poor cleaning agent for such purposes. It might appear obvious in such situations to use the currently available synthetic detergents for pretreating garments of the type hereinbefore described, but as a practical matter neither the powdered detergents nor the heavy or medium duty liquid detergent compositions are so suitable. Both the powders and the liquids cannot be accurately, conveniently or economically worked into the heavily soiled portions of the garments. Thus, the powders are difiicult to slurry and must, generally, be used at the final laundering concentration. At this dilution, any brighteners present are also at a maximum dilution, and therefore, minimum nited States Patent concentration, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the brighteners which might ensue were they to be employed at the concentrations thereof in the concentrated, i.e., powder, formulation. The major disadvantage of the liquid compositions lies in the factors of accuracy, convenience and economy mentioned above.

It is, of course, well known that most of the powdered and liquid synthetic detergents presently on the market contain one or more optical brightening agents. These agents are generally characterized by the property of absorbing ultra-violet light and converting and reemitting said radiation as visible light, preferably of the shorter wave lengths near the blue end of the visible spectrum. Compounds which are commercially feasible for use as optical brighteners should be substantiall colorless, substantive to the article being treated, have a high brightness rating, and have a fairly high degree of light stability,

that is, they should not decompose to colored products original detergent formulation. The latter c0ncentration,'

it has been found, does not perform satisfactorily where pretreatment of heavily soiled areas is indicated.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide new, useful and outstanding detergent compositions, and particularly, aerosol detergent compositions which are especially adaptable for producing articles which are actually, apparently, and visibly uniformly cleansed.

It is another object of this invention to provide new, useful and outstanding aerosol detergent compositions which are particularly adaptable for pretreating heavily soiled areas of articles to be laundered.

It is still another object this invention to provide new, useful and outstanding aerosol compositions which can be employed in an efiicient and convenient manner in the hand washing of fine fabrics.

Other objects will appear hereinafter as the description proceeds.

The objects of the present invention are attained by providing compositions which comprise as the essential components thereof, the following:

(1) A synthetic detergent or wetting agent;

(2) An optical brightening agent; and

(3) A suitable propellant.

The synthetic detergent or wetting agent component of the aerosol detergent compositions of this invention are not especially critical, and may comprise any nonionic, anionic or cationic surface active substance which is compatable with the major component which is normally present in the compositions, namely the propellant, as well as the brightener.

The propellant mixture, which, as pointed out above, comprises the major portion of the composition, may be any suitable and conventional propellant heretobefore employed in the aerosol packaging industry. The preferred propellants are the liquefied normally gaseous halogenated hydrocarbons such as the Freon type propellants, which are usually chlorinated, fluorinated alkanes, and examples of these are:

Freon-11 (trichloromonofiuoromethane) Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane) Freon-112 (tetrachlorodifiuoroethane) Freon-113 (trichlorotrifluoroethane) Freon-114 (dichlorotetrafiuoroethane) Particularyly excellent propellant combinations are obtained using mixtures of Freon-11 and Freon-12 wherein the latter compound is present to the extent of about 40% to about 80% by weight based on the weight of the two propellants. The preferred propellant combination is a mixture of equal parts by weight of Freon-11 and Freon- 12. The amount of propellant in the detergent composition may vary considerably but, in general, between 50% and 80% by weight of the said detergent composition is made up of the propellant. The remaining 20% to 50% of the areosol detergent composition comprises a solution or dispersion of optical brightening agent and surfactant in a suitable solvent which is compatible with the propellant. Compatibility is usually necessary and desirable in order to produce a single phase, homogeneous formulation which can result in uniform and reproducible effects. Generally the solvent employed is anhydrous ethyl alcohol, although minor amounts of water, up to about 10% by weight, may be present.

Of the 20% to 50% nonpropellant component portion of the present composition, by far the major portion thereof is comprised of the surface active agent. Generally, from about 75% to about 95% by weight of this nonpropellant component is made up of the surface active product. The remaining to about 25% by weight of the nonpropellant ingredients comprise the optical brightener and the solvent. In general, the concentration of the optical brightener in the final composition should vary from about 0.002% to about 0.2% by weight, with the selected concentration being dependent primarily upon the solubility of the optical brightening agent in the solvent and wetting agent which are employed.

As described above, the surface active material may be selected from any of the conventional types which include the nonionic, anionic and cationic surface active agents, with the nonionic types being preferred.

Such surface active, detergent materials are well known products and by way of example, mention may be made particularly to the alkylene oxide condensates of organic compounds containing a reactive hydrogen atom. Illustrations of such reactive hydrogen-containing organic compounds are aliphatic alcohols, alkyl phenols, aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids, the corresponding amides, aliphatic and aromatic monoand polyamines, sulphonamides, and aliphatic and aromatic monoand polymercaptans. Specific examples of these compounds may be found in the following US. patents: 1,970,578, 2,085,706, 2,205,021, 2,213,477, 3,060,124, 3,075,922, and 3,122,508, where inumerous and diifernt nonionic surface active, detergent compounds are shown.

The anionic and cationic surfactants may be further exemplified in the following US patents: 2,941,950, 3,001,949, 3,075,922, 3,122,508 and 3,192,166.

As with the synthetic detergent component, the specific chemical nature of the optical brightener is not especially critical, and any of those conventionally used and well known in the art may be employed. The following general classes of optical brightening agents are satisfactory for use in the aerosol compositions of the present invention:

(1) Coumarin types as illustrated in the following US. patents: 2,590,485, 2,600,375, 2,610,152, 2,647,132, 2,647,133, 2,791,564, and 2,881,186.

(2) Triazolyl stilbene types as illustrated in the following U.S. patents: 2,668,777, 2,684,966, 2,713,057, 2,784,183, 2,784,197, 2,817,665, 2,907,760, 2,927,866 and 2,993,892.

(3) Stilbene cyanuric types as illustrated in the following U.S. patents: 2,473,475, 2,526,668, 2,595,030, 2,618,636, 2,658,064, 2,658,065, 2,660,578, 2,666,052, 2,694,064, and 2,840,557.

(4) Acylamino stilbene types as illustrated in the following US. patents: 2,084,413, 2,468,431, 2,521,665, 2,528,323, 2,581,057, 2,623,064, 2,674,604, and 2,675,982.

(5) Miscellaneous types as illustrated in the following US. patents: 2,911,514, and 3,031,460.

The general procedure for preparing the aerosol detergent compositions of this invention is as follows:

(A) A solution of the selected optical brightener, at a suitable concentration, is prepared in an alcoholic solvent, and this is most conveniently done by the employment of elevated temperatures to aid in the dissolution of the brightener. The alcohol may contain minor amounts of water as described above.

(B) An aliquot portion of Solution A is added to the surfactant material, which is preferably a liquid or readily liquefiable surface active compound, to produce a solution of the selected brightener or brighteners in the surfactant-alcohol combination.

(C) Solution B is then added to the selected propellant combination in amounts within the limits described above.

Handling of the materials in step (C) and subsequent packaging thereof are carried out with the usual precautions and techniques in the aerosol art.

The various solutions are prepared so that, in general, the concentration of optical brightener in the final aerosol composition is within the limits herein contemplated and described.

The following examples will serve to illustrate the present invention without being deemed limitative thereof. In these examples, parts are by weight unless otherwise indicated.

EXAMPLE 1 To one liter of a mixture of 9 parts of ethyl alcohol and 1 part of water, the said mixture being maintained at a temperature of about F., there are added 200 mg. of a brightener having the following formula:

50 parts of the resultant solution are then added to 350 parts of a nonionic surface active detergent composition which is an ethoxylated nonyl phenol having the molecular configuration of the condensation product of nonyl phenol with about 10 moles of ethylene oxide, resulting in an apparently true solution of the components containing 0.0025% of the aforementioned brightener. 25 parts of this solution are then packaged with 75 parts of a 1:1 mixture of Freon-11 and Freon-12 propellants.

EXAMPLE 2 Percent Sodium tripolyphosphate 25 Nonionic surfactant (same as used in aerosol) 10 Sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate 10 Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose 1.5

Aqueous sodium silicate (36%) 10 3,431,060 6 A random panel of five people unanimously picked (C) the pretreated collar sections as being many times whiter than the untreated control collar sections. g

EXAMPLE 3 NaOaS-CHg-N CH Example 2 is repeated except that the control collar 5 H sections are also pretreated by pouring a small amount of the heavy duty liquid detergent used in the 30 minute 0 laundering cycle over the collar sections. The panel of NaO S SOzNa omoQ-c ONH \S NHC o-Q-oom (SCH. 6. $11.0

I SO3Na some N(C2H4OH)2 N(C2H4OH)2 five again unanimously picked the aerosol-treated collar EXAMPLE 7 sections to be much whiter than the others. E l 1 d 2 t d tt t xamp es an are once again repea e excep a EXAMPLE 4 0 the propellant mixture used in these examples is replaced Examples 1, 2 and 3 are repeated using, however, the by the following mixtures: following indicated surface active detergent compounds, in the same amounts, in place of the nonionic product (A) and 75% Freon'lz used in these examples. (B) 40% Freon-11 and 60% Freon-12 (A) Lauryl alcohol condensed with 15 moles of ethyl- (C) 45% Freon'lz 55% Freon'u4 ene oxide.

In all instances the results are excellent and comparable to those in Examples 1 and 2.

While in the above examples certain specific formulations have been illustrated, it is clear that many variations within the scope and spirit of the present invention may be made. Thus, the propellant combinations may be any suitable ones which are conventionally used in the aerosol industry, and particularly those herein described. In addition, one may employ single propellant compounds rather than mixtures as herein exemplified, although such mixtures are preferred. Other surface active (B) Oxotridecyl alcohol condensed with 7 moles of ethylene oxide.

(C) Lauramide condensed with 22 moles of ethylene oxide.

(D) Sodium linear-C alkyl benzene sulphonate.

(E) Dinonyl phenol condensed with 12 moles of ethylene oxide.

(F) Linear-C alkylated phenol condensed with 30 moles of ethylene oxide.

The results are comparable to those of the preceding examplescompounds may be employed in place of the ones shown, X M 5 as Well as any of the other brighteners which have been Several soiled acetate undergarments are placed in a suggejsted as equivalfailts and alternatives the Purposes wash basin and treated with the aerosol composition of and m the comPosltlons of pre sent The Example L The garments are then immersed in water, aerosol formulations of the 1nstant mvent1on have been squeezed Slightly, rinsed and then dried Similar descr bed in terms of the essential ingredients contained garments are washed in a basin with the heavy duty therein, but it is clear, that other additives may be mliquid formulation used in the laundering cycle in corporated therewith such as disinfectants, sequestrants, ample 2. The aerosol-treated and washed garments are $011 l agents fa bnc softeners perfumeshand noticeably cleaner and Whiter than the others the like. Still further, it is apparent that where single components are used one may employ mixtures of the EXAMPLE 6 alternatives and equivalents which are described herein.

Each of the previous examples is repeated except that In particular, mention might be made of surface active in the aerosol formulations the brightener is replaced by Compounds, bfightenel's, and y of the Other additives the following brighteners: in this regard, to achieve the ends and teachings of the (A) present invention.

N I claim:

1. In a method for laundering textile materials in an aqueous detergent bath, the improvement which comprises pretreating said textile materials with a packaged $102M I aerosol detergent composition consisting essentially of:

(A) from about 50% to about 80% by weight of a chlorinated, fluorinated alkane propellant, and

(B) from about 20% to about 50% by weight of a solution of from about 75% to about 95% by weight of a surface active agent selected from the group consisting of nonionic, anionic and cationic surface active agents, from about 0.002% to about 0.2% by weight of a textile optical brightening agent and a balance of ethyl alcohol solvent, said solvent containing up to about 10% by weight of water. 1 2. In the method for laundering textile materials N SOaNa NBOaS I claimed in claim 1, the improvement which comprises References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,692,238 10/1954 Hendrix 25289 2,873,206 2/1959 Geigy et a] 252301.2 2,879,231 3/1959 Allen et 'al 25290 8 4/1964 Klausner 252-90 5/1964 Lindner et al. 8--137 LEON D. ROSDOL, Primary Examiner.

5 W. SCHULZ, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl X.R. 

